Khusro Bakhtiar

Mr Bakhtiar has been active in Pakistan’s political arena from the late 1990s and still remains a major player.

In March 2018, he became business partner of Jahangir Khan Tareen after they together purchased a sugar mill for Rs 27 billion. This triggered speculation that he might join PTI soon.

On 9 April 2018, Bakhtiar, together with seven other PML-N parliamentarians, quit the PML-N and formed a new group under the name of "Junoobi Punjab Sooba Mahaaz". The group accused PML-N for ignoring the southern part of Punjab and demanded the creation of separate province for southern Punjab. On 30 April, he resigned from his National Assembly seat in protest.

On 9 May 2018, Junoobi Punjab Sooba Mahaaz merged with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Subsequently, Bakhtiar joined PTI.

He was re-elected to the National Assembly as a candidate of PTI from Constituency NA-177 (Rahim Yar Khan-III) in 2018 Pakistani general election.

On 18 August, Imran Khan formally announced his federal cabinet structure and Bakhtiar was named as Minister for Water Resources. However, on 20 August 2018, he was sworn in as Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms in the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Imran Khan. On 19 November 2019, He was appointed as Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research and served in that position until a perceived conflict of interest due to his sugar business, after which he resigned on April 6th, 2020. . He was appointed Minister of Economic Affairs after a cabinet reshuffle on the 6th of April, 2020.

He was re-elected to the National Assembly as an independent candidate from Constituency NA-194 (Rahim Yar Khan-III) in 2013 Pakistani general election. He received 64,272 votes and defeated Makhdoom Shahabuddin. In the same election, he also ran for the seat of the National Assembly as an independent candidate from Constituency NA-195 (Rahim Yar Khan-IV) but was unsuccessful. He received 46,897 votes and lost the seat to Mustafa Mehmood. In the same election, he was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as an independent candidate from Constituency PP-289 (Rahimyar Khan-V). He received 25,898 votes and defeated Mian Muhammad Aslam Advocate. Following the election, he abandoned his Punjab Assembly seat in favor of the National Assembly seat.

On 23 May 2013, he joined PML-N. In 2017 he was made Chairman House Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs

He ran for the seat of the National Assembly as a candidate of PML-Q from Constituency NA-194 (Rahim Yar Khan-III) in 2008 Pakistani general election, but was unsuccessful. He received 42,442 votes and lost the seat to Makhdoom Shahabuddin.

On 4 September 2004, he was inducted into the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and was appointed as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. He continued to serve as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs until 15 November 2007.

He was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan as a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (PML-Q) from Constituency NA-194 (Rahim Yar Khan-III) in 2002 Pakistani general election. He received 70,116 votes and defeated Makhdoom Shahabuddin. In the same election, he also ran for the seat of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of PML-Q from Constituency PP-291 (Rahim Yar Khan-VII) but was unsuccessful.

Previously, he was a member of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab from 1997 to 1999. He was a member of National Assembly from 2002 to 2007 and again from June 2013 to April 2018. During his first tenure as Member of the National Assembly, he served as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from September 2004 to November 2007 in the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

He was elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) from Constituency PP-236 (Rahim Yar Khan-V) in 1997 Pakistani general election. He received 19,736 votes and defeated Makhdoom Ashfaq Ahmad, a candidate of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

He graduated from the University of Punjab in 1990, and received an LLB (Hons.) degree in 1994 from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Bar-at-Law degree from Lincoln's Inn, United Kingdom in 1995.

Makhdum Khusro Bakhtiar (Urdu: مخدوم خسرو بختیار ‎; born 7 July 1969) is a Pakistani politician who is currently serving as Pakistan’s Federal Minister of Economic Affairs, in office since April 2020. Previously, he has served as the Federal Minister of National Food Security and Research, from 19 November 2019 to 6 April 2020, And as the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms from 20 August 2018 to 18 November 2019. He has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 2002-2008, 2013-2018 and 2018-current day.

Bakhtiar was born on 7 July 1969. He hails from the Seraiki Belt region of Pakistan and belongs to an illustrious political family.